Farmers suffering due to government apathy: Hooda

Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday accused the BJP-JJP government of making farmers run from pillar to post for selling their produce

Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday accused the BJP-JJP government of making farmers run from pillar to post for selling their produce.

Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the crop brought to the market is either being sold to private agencies at lower rates or has to be taken back home and farmers have to bear the transportation cost twice over. (HT File)

The leader of Opposition said he paid a visit to mandis in state on October 3 and saw farmers facing problems. “The grain has started turning black. The government is responsible for this delay but farmers will have to bear the brunt,” he said.

In a statement, Hooda said it seems the state government is merely pretending to buy paddy and bajra. He said this apathy is not just limited to paddy, the government is also playing similar games with bajra growers.

“Today the market rate of bajra is between ₹900 to ₹1,200. Even if ₹600 of the Bhavantar Bharpayee Yojana announced by the government is added to this, farmers will still lose ₹350 to ₹650 per quintal. Even the MLAs of the ruling coalition have flagged this to the Haryana chief minister,” he said.

“About 28 lakh quintal paddy is lying in the mandis as on Wednesday and procurement process is hardly running smoothly in any mandi. The crop brought to the market is either being sold to private agencies at lower rates or has to be taken back home and farmers have to bear the transportation cost twice over,” Hooda said.

Hooda said the government is imposing unnecessary conditions such as portal registration, and scheduling. There is a capping of 25 quintal per acre, which was reduced from 33 quintal last year while there was no cap on procurement during the Congress government.